This is single switch test showing switch 74
Post a pic like this if you can.

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I do have the mini PF out at the moment checking those optos as well. It appears the following optos are bad: ball popper, mini pf entrance and exit, diverter and auto kicker

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I'd try reseating the connectors on the opto board. Mine had a connector that if you wiggled the wires while in test mode, would send an intermittent signal. I reseated the wires with that little plastic reseating tool and all good. It was the wires that kind of connect mid wire, not the wires that end at the connector

Any guesses what this is?

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That's an anchor point. Commonly used to chain the game to the floor because nobody wants to sell a TZ. "This game is bolted to the floor."

Excellent!
Another TZ mod!

Looks like you have no Optos showing closed in column 7. You can test the physical switches 77 and 78 to confirm that they are working.

Be careful reconnecting the mini playfield. Two connectors can be mistakenly swapped.

None of the optos are working that are J1 from the 10 opto board. I think that’s where my problem lies but without having another 10 board to test, I’m blindly buying one without knowing that’s the issue

Has anyone ever assessed what it would cost if TZ were made today by JJP or Stern? Curious.

Problem was solved. Initially I replaced all 3 LM339s but that didn’t work. Replaced the 10 channel opto board with a new one from pinball life and all is well.

Just occurred to me to ask here.

So I moved my TZ into my friend’s house on a temporary trade for an Avengers LE yesterday. All was good prior to moving, once we got the TZ up my hill, into my car, 30 minutes away, down his steps, and set up, the sound no longer worked. No start up tone, no noise at all coming from the speaker. Everything else seems to be functional (a 3 ball silent game). After 2 hours of troubleshooting. We determined all LEDs on board worked according to manual, all fuses were good (removed and tested with multimeter, all connectors reseated. Finally we discovered no power was coming off of J114 on the P.C.B. to the audio board. We tested on the pins on the PCB. Well crud, moving the TZ is a pain, so how to fix remotely. He is a pin guy. We removed the TZ PCB board which had visual repairs on the back, but had never given me issues. I took the P.C.B. out of the Twilight Zone home and put it in my ST:TNG. It worked flawlessly, to include power coming off of the J114 connector. If I unplug the J114 connector in my ST:TNG the sound stops. So there was power coming off of J114 in the ST:TNG but not in the TZ using the same board. I left my known 100% and working perfectly PCB from my ST:TNG at my friend’s work this morning and hopefully that works tonight.

My questions are, is there anything I am missing? In the event that 2 separate boards (will test tonight) when inserted into a machine do not have power coming off of J114, one of them a known 100% good and tested 24 hours earlier, what is my next troubleshooting step? What step before the PCB that could go wrong would cause J114 to not get power but only J114? Other than throwing in the known good board, what else is there?
Thanks for your troubleshooting help!

Hello friends! I am looking for an assist on troubleshooting here. My new to me TZ has played pretty well the first month, it had some issues with the slot kick out being loose that were easily resolved and a couple solder points on coils I have fixed.

This weekend I got “into the zone” and when finished the mode the game was unable to refill the gum ball due to lack of power on the auto plunge, although it tried, and the ball count was off rendering a very good ball 1 unplayable. It took a few ball dumps and resets to get things working again, but I did get it resolved.

My next “into the zone” didn’t fare as well, after halfway through the auto plunger stopped working completely, and game froze when all balls drained. I messed around with power off like any good 90s Windows kid, and when that didn’t work I tried pulling all balls manually and figured out I had a power issue to some of the playfield / Coils.

I found fuse F112 blown, and can easily replace that and intend to take apart and clean the auto plunger coil and order parts for a rebuild there.

What else should I be looking for or concerned about, with this fuse blowing? This is my first older game and don’t see much in this thread particular to that issue, so appreciate any insight anyone can provide-

F112 is the 50V circuit that drives all the coils. These are split up later to 5 separate circuits protected by F101-F105 - I firstly suggest checking that these fuses are the correct fuses (you'll find the list of fuses in the manual - which if you don't have it can be downloaded from ipdb.org). Sometimes fuses will go simply because of their age otherwise (and more likely) a coil has locked on and caused the fuse to pop - turn the machine on (if any smoke or burning smell turn the machine off) then go into solenoid test and verify every coil works - this will determine if there is a damaged coil that needs to be fixed (it may cause one of the above fuses to go again). Let us know how you get on

J114 provides both 5V and 12V to the CPU board and 5V to the audio board - so if J114 had no power the game wouldn't have booted. Did you happen to test TP2 & TP3 when the Power Driver Board was in the TZ (as these are directly off the same wire trace)?

I hate to state the obvious but sometimes those are the easiest things to miss. Did you check the 2 fuses and the fuse holders on the audio board? This seems like a bad fuse or broken solder joint to me.

Thanks all! Long story short after some more troubleshooting my friend fixed it and is nebulously calling it "user error". Thanks!

I will double check the others, and run through the suggested tests, thank you for that tip and the reply! Replacing the F112 the game worked fine immediately and on startup reloaded the gum ball without fail. No burning smell, keeping an eye on things. My one self-induced problem after replacing that fuse was the fuse in the power by the coin door popped loose, and everything shut down. I had pulled that out troubleshooting earlier and didn’t get it locked in properly it seems. Have played a few games with the new fuse and will let the kids keep playing it until I have time to work on the auto plunge coil, since it was a known problem child already with longer games and the 6 ball multi mode.

I've been having this issue all of a sudden as well. I considered replacing the LM339s (they aren't socketed and I'm not proficient with board work), but I think I'm gonna do the same and buy a replacement board. Worked great for the acid damage I inherited on the main board.

Removing the soldered LM339s wasn’t awful but changing out the entire board was definitely the easiest method

I installed the new clock assembly, and the clock LEDs did not light. Coyote suggested swapping the power leads to reverse the polarity. I swapped the yellow & yellow-white leads on J121. Simple fix using screwdriver to push out the pin/wire and swapping positions. I now have a brightly lit clock that works great that properly dims with the OCD.

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I always say start with the simple. Going straight to a board went bad in a move is really a long shot of the root cause.
I use this as a simple question for software developers when interviewing and understanding their problem solving.

You have a table lamp and it doesn’t light up, what are the first three things you trouble shoot?
The answer is: is it plugged in, does it have a light bulb in it and is turned on.

So many times I get the complex response, like trace the wiring, check the outlet for power with a meter, etc...

Start simple

Wondering why those leads were swapped in the first place?

I think the simple answer was it didn't make a difference when it was incandescent bulbs so nobody cared including the assembly line folks.

He switched them *from factory*. That's how they are coming from factory. Mickpat reversed them, for DC voltage to be right for ramegoom clock board to work with GIOCD.

Maybe another angle could be to reverse the LEDs on the display board, specifically for the GIOCD application? Possibly an option.

Sorry for the entry level questions to follow. I have an incredibly unmolested near mint tz. The only issue is after an hour or so of being on the clock will start to run and won’t stop. (I am assuming this is the incandescent heat inside the clock housing that i’m trying to educate myself on).

Is this the kit you are referencing? Seems like it’s what i need to take care of my issue. It’s says 20 min install, what’s involved? Anywhere i can ready up on the process before i get in over my head? Any other parts i need to completely fix? I’m not looking for mods, just reliability. Thanks in advance!

The clock motor is controlled by a relay board under the playfield. I don't have any experience with that, but your issue does not sound like a problem with the clock itself.

Well, now I feel a bit foolish. Upon further examination, a wire to the coil had come loose! How in the world I missed this last time I looked, I have no idea. The advice is true: start simple!

Thank God I can fix this with a little bit of solder instead of an $80 opto board replacement. This time at least.

If anyone has a broken gumball divider or is just missing it, I made one in fusion 360 using the original dimensions. I cut mine from plexi as I have a cnc but if you only have a 3D printer, you can print it...Here is the link:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4831311

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Does anyone here have the lighted apron kit hooked up to their machine? If so, where are you pulling power from to light the apron?

I have someone that's willing to sell me their kit but he never installed it and can't tell me how to hook it up. I have a bunch of mods already pulling power from the driver board on my machine and need to make sure this thing doesn't hook up there.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

This is what I did instead of using that plastic piece with standoffs. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-owners-club/page/114#post-4331472

Here is a cheaper and better looking alternative magnet. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-owners-club/page/191#post-6044066

Well, I guess I knew the powerball could fly but wasn't expecting this.

"I'm not coming down unless you promise to stop hitting me!"

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“It’s not yours!” LOL

.

Looking for some advice. Rookie pinner but trying to learn.

I had the clock is broken error and a friend told me to get a new LED board so i did and put it in. Before the swap the time was correct, now with the new board it is reading with the optos wrong top is :45 hour hand is all wrong as well still getting the error message. Is there a way to calibrate this unit?

thanks

John
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You should never have more than 1 minute opto open (active) at a time. With both those shots, it is reporting both :30 and :45 optos closed.

Check that plugs were plugged in correctly, and that the optos, if socketed, are in tightly.

Yoteeeeee that was it thanks so much! Cycled it several times clock is now working.

Thanks again!!!

Opps spoke too soon, worked perfert for 3 games now back to clock broken, but optos working, hmmmmmmm

Any suggestions?

Assuming that board is powered by 12v, have you added any mods using 12v? Like the Color LCD?

I don't believe colordmd uses 12v?

This is pulled directly from the ColorDMD support page...

"I installed my ColorDMD and now my trough and opto-controlled circuits are going crazy.

This problem can be caused by a weak or failing output from the unregulated 12V supply on the WPC/WPC95 power driver board. The extra load current drawn by the ColorDMD display (about 0.5A) creates a small voltage drop at the output of the unregulated supply that can cause a weak supply to begin failing. The voltage drop can affect other circuits that run from the 12V supply like optical switches and motors. Symptoms may be more noticable during peaks in the load current when motors are active.

The easiest way to confirm a power driver problem is to try swapping the WPC/WPC95 power driver board with the same board from another game to see if the problem disappears. Another method is to use a digital multimeter (DMM) to monitor the output voltage at TP3 (WPC95) with the motors in test mode. There should be only a small drop (<0.5V) in the DC output voltage when the motor is activated. A large voltage swing indicates a problem with the supply.

If a problem is detected with the supply, try reflowing the solder joints for the bridge diodes and capacitor (D3-D6, C8 on WPC95) associated with the 12V unregulated supply. If this doesn't help, replace these components."

Guy with the issue - maybe try unplugging the ColorDMD and see if the issue persists.

Well, apparently my belief was incorrect!

Well I took a chance on the classic arcades repro. Total crap. Just utter crap. The colors and sharpness on my original one were far superior, even with the damage and scratches. Anyway, after I send this back to him I'm going to go with the Netherlands reprint I guess. I mean, why isn't a TZ speaker panel quality reprint more commonly found? Seems like a missed opportunity for reprint people.

I mean, look at this?! EDIT: note there is no film covering the panel, just the transparent plastic. Also, if I gave you a close up shot you'd notice the obvious blurry/fuzziness of the printing, and not the sharp smooth lines of the original.

image_67201793 (resized).JPG

Search classic arcades on pinside.
Ordering anything is a crap shoot.
I too have purchased from him.
Crap.
I posted pics of high speed sling plastics that were not even close to the correct color

I think I figured out my new problem. I purchased the casper electronics clock pc board part 103501 from Marco. The optos do not stick out as far as the original board.

Any advice on my next move?

Thanks in advance

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It is what it is. Proof is in the pudding. Sorry someone had to downvote you for having an opinion. Very sad! Thanks for saving your fellow pinsiders from making a purchase that would waste their hard earned dollars. Some of us love hearing honest reviews of products